THE REACH OF WAR: POLITICS

THE REACH OF WAR: POLITICS; Iraqi Leader Says He'll Respect Kurd Desire for Autonomy, at Least for Now

By DEXTER FILKINS

Published: June 10, 2004

BAGHDAD, Iraq, June 9—
Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said Wednesday that his government would adhere to the interim constitution agreed to in March until elections are held next year, in an effort to defuse, at least temporarily, a looming crisis with the Kurdish leadership.

In a statement issued by his office late in the evening, Dr. Allawi's spokesman, George Hada, declared the new government's ''full commitment'' to the interim constitution until democratic elections are held later this year or in January 2005.

The statement from Dr. Allawi's office followed a threat this week by Kurdish leaders to pull back from the Iraqi state and possibly secede. The leaders were alarmed after officials in New York failed to include the interim constitution in the United Nations Security Council resolution, approved Tuesday, on the return of sovereignty to the Iraqis.

The Kurds are worried that without the protections in the interim constitution, they might lose the broad autonomy they have garnered since 1991 under American military protection. The interim constitution recognizes the autonomy of the Kurdish region and grants the Kurds extraordinary powers to protect it.

But the commitment made by Dr. Allawi will likely only postpone a solution. His statement binds the new Iraqi government to the constitution only during ''the provisional period,'' until elections are held.

Many Shiite leaders say it is at that point, when the Shiites will likely hold a majority of the seats in the national assembly, that they would remove the language that grants the Kurds effective veto power over the permanent constitution.

That language was a central component in the compromise that persuaded the Kurds last March to agree to the interim constitution and to affirm a commitment to the Iraqi state.

The statement issued by Dr. Allawi's office followed a flurry of activity involving Shiite political leaders and the country's most powerful Shiite religious leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. Iraqi officials say Ayatollah Sistani, who earlier this week warned the Security Council against including the interim constitution in the sovereignty resolution, tried to reassure Kurdish leaders.

Kurdish leaders reacted cautiously to Dr. Allawi's statement. The top Kurdish leaders spent much of the day discussing the future, which they have increasingly suggested may include secession.

''We are happy to see the prime minister reaffirm his commitment,'' to the interim constitution, said Barem Saleh, a senior leader of the Patriotic Union for Kurdistan.

But Mr. Saleh said he and other Kurds were disheartened by what they regarded as a casual commitment made by many Shiite leaders, who endorsed the interim constitution last March only to announce their opposition to parts of it immediately after the signing.

Mr. Saleh said the Kurdish public, which often clamors for independence from Baghdad, has also been angered by the episode. ''If a community in Iraq wants to hijack the constitutional process in the name of majority rule, this won't work,'' he said. ''It really smacks of a lack of interest in a viable future.''

The impasse over the interim constitution represents the collision of the Shiites' dream of majority rule, which has been repressed for centuries, and the Kurdish desire for minority rights, often trampled in the past.

The key language that worries the Shiites -- and is so crucial to the Kurds -- relates to the ratification of the permanent constitution. The interim constitution says that the permanent charter will be drawn up after democratic elections, and will be put to a vote of the Iraqi people.

Under the rules, the permanent constitution will pass on a majority vote, unless two-thirds of the voters in three of the 18 provinces reject it, in which case it will fail. Three provinces have Kurdish majorities.

Mowaffak al-Rubaie, Iraq's national security advisor and a Shiite who is close to Ayatollah Sistani, said the dispute was deeper than just one clause. The Shiite leadership, he says, believes it is wrong that an interim constitution that was drawn up by an unelected body -- the Iraqi Governing Council -- should bind the freely elected national assembly.

He suggested that the assembly would likely disregard all or parts of the document. ''You cannot control the will of the people,'' he said. ''Whatever they will do, they will do.''

But Dr. Rubaie said he was sympathetic to Kurdish fears and said Shiite leaders would try over the next several months to reassure the Kurds that they would not lose their autonomous status. ''I don't believe a majority of Iraqis would deny the Kurds their rights of full federalism,'' he said.

For his part, Mr. Saleh said he did not have much patience for the Shiite views. The interim constitution was unanimously approved by the governing council's Shiite leadership, he noted. ''When we sign something, we should mean it,'' he said.